American Reacts to Why EURO-Spec Cars are SAFER Than American Cars...
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
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To me the red indicator lights look like the driver is constantly pumping the brake pedal. It's really strange that it's considered safe in the USA.
.......yaa, especially when the other TWO BRAKE LAMPS do not light up. It's SOOO HARD on my lil brain!!! IDIOT
But it's allowed in some European countries at least, but nobody really likes it.
@ I've seen a few in The Netherlands, looks like a form over function kind of thing if you ask me... 😅
@ In Norway AFAIK it is allowed if the car was originally sold (back in the day before the standard was set) or imported with those type of lights (e.g. if you import an old US muscle car). However, I do not think you can sell brand new cars with red turn signals.
Ye it’s the dumbest thing to me
Hi from the UK . UK and Euro plates are designed to be read by cameras both for speed enforcement and for road congestion information. Also our police cars have Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras (ANPR) which can read the plate and alert if the car is stolen or wanted for any reason.
The design of the plates are made bevor any cameras in police cars are used. They were designed so that a police officer can read them with his eyes much easier. So the size was there long before. But I think they made some changes in the ink and the plate background so that cameras can work better with it.
in germany anpr is illegal for the police as it infringes on basic rights of german citizens.
@@sgxbot 'it infringes on basic rights of German citizens' - the basic right to drive stolen vehicles, to drive un-insured, to drive without road tax, those sorts of basic rights?
@@jockeyladjockeylad8492 the basic right of privacy. it has been decided that those systems can be used to track every citizen. where they are going, at what time, on which days, for how long etc, thats why in germany police cant use automated maschines scanning every license plate.
police can still check up on licens plates but not with a system that automatically scans every single one.
if you dont pay the taxes for your car your car will just be made unoperable, you need insurance to be able to get the car registered in the first place. and if you dont pay your insurance the same as with tax will happen.
the stolen one is a point but it has been decided that police cant track every person moving on streets to find a few people driving around in stolen vehicles thats disproportionate to infringe on the right of privacy of 80 million people to find a couple hundred stolen cars
@@sgxbot May I ask how, unless caught, will the car be made inoperable? Maybe it was just lost in translation.
Front fog lights are for your own visibility, rear fog lights are so OTHERS can see you in heavy rain/fog.
and front fog lights are only allowed to be used in the densest of mist, which in my country barely happens....
EDIT: rear foglights
@@DrTheRich Mist and snow, but never rain as it's blinding incoming drivers
@@Cailloumax i never said rain
A huge majority of people are completely ignorant on how to drive in inclimate weather so mandating certain lights only for use in fog but not rain would be like asking most drivers to solve differential equations when they can't even be bothered to turn on regular headlights in the rain.
@@DrTheRich Here in the Netherlands it's the opposite. Rear fog lights only in heavy fog (not rain), because rear fog lights blind traffic behind you otherwise. Front fog lights are for heavy rain or mist which reduces visibility to 100 meters. Rear fog lights are for when the vision is below 25 meters.
What is not mentioned in the video, and what is a very big safety difference is also the shape of the light produced by headlights. In US as far as I know the lights are symmetrical, but in EU they are wider and higher on the passenger side. It makes it better to see what is on the side of the road, while not glowing incoming traffic in the eyes. It is especially important in suburban roads, where there often are no sidewalks and pedestrians happen to walk just on the side of the road.
i have encountered some that are exactly the other way arround blinding me with the left light and the right light appering to to normal and not blinding xD
@@luxaly9510 Well, you might have encountered a UK car (they drive on "the wrong side of the road" ;) ) in continental Europe, or - what is far more probable - a car with incorrectly set (or damaged) headlamps.
yeah that will be it cause we are kinda far from the UK^^ i mean like so many cars are blinding... my guess its wrongly adjusted headlights or maybe even illegal aftermarket LED lights... but we have §57a Pickerl here (like German TÜV) so they would not get the "Pickerl" if something is wrong... but every Mechanic does these so its might be like customer service to just give the Pickerl even if the Lights are not fit@@AdamNeoDot
As far as I know, every car has a light pattern, that is higher on the passenger sides
@@iuopunderstandyourjokes9914Well, not every car, just every car designed for Europe and probably some other regions (in USA - the lights are symmetrical). And *should* have, as damaged/wrongly set headlamps can lead to wrong pattern.
Fun Fact: The license plate in the Netherlands belongs to the car and stays with the car until it gets scrapped or sold abroad. This also means you get all the details about your car if you need service or parts. A garage will ask for your plate number or If you are on a website you fill in your licence plate number and you will get all the right body or engine parts.
Same generally in uk. I say 'generally', as you can legally get the registration changed to a personalised plate. Most cars don't though.
BTW, personalised plates in the UK are nothing like those ones you see in the USA.
I doubt a foreigner could tell the difference, with most UK personalised plates.
@@CraigMilesRUclips do UK has the same system as in Sweden ? In sweden the car has its own number ie xxx 311 but the owner can buy a personalized plate ie 'smeden' , and register that number on 'xxx 311', if you buys another car you transfer 'smeden' to that car and puts 'smeden' on that car as replacement for the real ones (and you nominate that car as the holder of 'smeden')
While the old one gets 'xxx 311' back.
You are not allowed to transfer 'smeden' from car to car willy nilly (though you could have a green dealer only plate 'smeden' but those are special and has special rules.)
@@TheStefanskoglund1 no
Exactly the same in Italy.
@@CraigMilesRUclips you don't really own your personalised plate, you only get the license to display.
A little thing to add. If you are a firefighter in Denmark, you can get a sort of metal shield that you put on the front of your private car - usually on the grill. It signals to the other cars that you are a firefighter and your alarm goes off and need to get to the station quickly. Usually ppl are respect the shield and let you through.
Thats actually pretty smart. We need that in Norway.. Here they dont have any for of identification, so you can randomly get overtaken by a car without knowing its a firefighter. And you might even just think its an idiot and dont do anything to help him. But this shield i guess you can remove if you are off duty?
@@Alpejohn no you can’t remove that version, since it’s screwed on to the grill of the car. Tho there have been testing of removable versions, that kinda look like the taxi signs on New York taxis. They sit on top of the car, like the taxi and car be taken on and off depending if the firefighter is on duty. Tho I don’t think they’ve caught on, at least not in the part of Denmark where I live. I’ve never actually seen those versions anywhere. Only the shield ones or a sticker (usually on the front and back window).
Plus it’s a good way for the police to see that the car going fast is a firefighter on duty/call and that the police don’t stop/ticket them. I’ve heard from firefighters, that sometimes if they are called into the station and a police car sees them - the police help them get through traffic a bit faster.
We in the Netherlands we have one to.
But its use so that police and the BOA do net set a ticket on the car.
If the fire fighting is park
@@MsBlackdeath13 In Norway they are not allowed to go faster then the speed limit, to do so it needs flashing blue lights and be a emergency vehicle I think.
But I guess most of them so as at least where I live it’s 5-6 minutes of normal driving to get to the station, that’s without traffic, if you also have to run out to the car and drive off, ending up behind another vehicle then you loose a lot of time. I think they have to be at the station within 8 minutes or so. I live in a small area and not even close to be a city.
So it must be really frustrating if they can’t get there in time due to traffic and not be able to go faster..
16:00 I think the reason for the bumpers in Europe is that there are strict rules about passive safety for pedestrians and cyclists
And the driver! To compensate US cars NEED much more airbags, and even than they are more unsafe. Just look at studies made by Volvo and Saab, two pioneers on safety for driver and those they collide with. Bull bars are forbidden in almost every EU country for reasons! Even on police cars!
This is true. Furthermore, the cars from the design phase have very strict regulations applied to ensure that you always have certain points of contact that reach a pedestrian in specific order, in case of an accident - and here extended bumpers actively work against the pre-regulated design and ruin the entire reason to have the pedestrian safety regulations in the first place. It also makes the job of us designers worse, when we have to first spend hours minding the intricate regulative rules for the shapes and dimensions we can and can't use, only to then have to tack on bumper extensions on US spec cars that undoes a lot of our previous work lol.
Either way, however you slice it, regulations rarely reach global consensus and bureaucracy rules.
Studies have shown that the height of the bumper means it strikes the leg and not the knee so recovery is quicker with less consequences
In the USA, wearing seat belts was NOT law. so USA cars needed larger airbags because they were PRIMARY restraining . In Australia, for example Our airbags are much smaller because wearing seat belts is LAW! therefore our airbags are supplementary restraining devices. As for stupidly huge front bumpers? blame California . In the 70's many, MUCH safer cars were forced to fit ridiculous bumpers to comply with CA rules.
@@dutchman7623 I remember the time before Bull bars were forbidden. There were some horrible accidents with pedestrians and once they figured out that a kids head would smash like an overripe melon on said Bull bars, yeah, that's when it got banned. It has been quite a while, I think it was a horrifying accident between a Jeep and a cyclist that was the final nail in the coffin.
When you've always been told that "American is the best in the world", then you're in for a few surprises when you look beyond your borders 😂 Of course that doesn't mean everything is better elsewhere. If we keep an open mind we can all learn from other countries and cultures 👍
Yup. Fastest passenger plane, Concorde, definitely American. Biggest passenger plane, Airbus A380, definitely American. Supersportscars like Bugatti and so on, definitely American. Trains like the TGV and Shinkansen, definitely American. Thing is, as logn as the Americans stay home, they don't ever learn what a backwater third world country they live in.
There is always a bigger fish.
So usually almost everything is better elsewhere, but very rarely almost everything is better everywhere else.
Hope that makes sense.
Sure, the rest of the world can have a masterclass in school- and mass-shootings.
Or how to add copious amounts of sugar to literally anything.
better than Europe for sure
I was really surprised when I saw the title. Why in the world would he ever think this?
Other differences:
- In US tail lights must be mounted on a fixed bodywork, so some cars that have tail lights on the tailgate have another rudimentary pair underneath.
- In EU turn signals can be animated (swiping motion for example) and in US they cannot.
- In EU adaptive headlights and even active high beam assist (high beam always on , oncoming and preceding vehicles are just cut out of light stream) are available for over a decade whereas in US only brand new cars can have them.
I read that in the USA, animated turn signals are allowed but the minimum % of the signal that is lighted up is required to be higher, as compared to in Europe. So the Mustang, whose 3 rear turn signal lights on each side of the car flash in an animated pattern, would have a legal animated pattern as at any 1 point of time, at least 1 of the 3 lights are lit (33%)
New Audis in the u.s. have animated turn signals
US has a minimum required number of Lumens for the turn signal. Hence why some animated turn lights look different than the EU spec. Example Audi EU spec starts with a single LED and activates more and more LEDs till all are on.
US spec Audi has 10 LED turn on and animates the rest (the 10 is a mere speculation as an example)
@@lzh4950 This right here. Animated turn lights are allowed in the US (learned that from Doug DeMuro if I recall correctly) but they require for a certain minimum area size to light up.
You do know that animated head lights were originally from the US right? Most commonly available on the Ford Mustang GT Fastback (1967)
I think a lot of the external differences come down to the opinion that safety is top priority in the EU and most the world and this means that the design is safety-first, appearance-second so cars are designed to complement the safety features. When you live here (UK in my case) the safety features become almost invisible - it's normal for me to see a wide yellow license plate on the back and a wide white one on the front (UK) and I find the stamped-metal plates in the USA quite ugly and cheap-looking.
This safety-first regulation is true of just about everything in the EU, not just cars. Companies don't like how much complexity it adds, but workers and the public appreciate feeling safer.
Meanwhile in Malaysia I see some vehicles have rear license plates custom-designed/shaped to fully fill up the license plate holder (whose design likely varies from car to car), perhaps to reduce the chance of them fitting if they're transferred to a different car by criminals to conceal crimes. Some cars also have their license plate no. sandblasted at one corner of their rear side windows so that they can still be identified even if criminals change the car's license plates
I happen to live in the Netherlands and yes we have very strict rules about licenseplates. They are issued by a branch of the government and you're not allowed to make any changes to them or slap some stickers on them. So yes I agree with you that the American plates are cooler looking and more fun but in the end I think licenseplates are a serious matter that serve a purpose and therefor have to be readable at all times.
Fact is, they have to be readable at all times, and you can even be fined if they're not!
@@dennisvanhelden9253 Same in Austria. If you drill through them for "mounting" purposes, you can get fined for "damaging an official document that is property of the state". And if it snows and you don't clean it when enough snow has accumulated on the plate so it gets unreadable you also can get fined.
@@nirfz I wish they would enforce clear plates rule in Finland more, i see alot of cars where plates are covered with snow or just dirt 😔 Sometimes nothing much you can do with snow since some snow just sticks and who is gonna stop every 5 mins to clear the plates off.
@@jaskajokunen3716 Yes, it's not like you would find a policemen everywhere just waiting to stop you for that here either.
Especially when there's heavy snowing going on. (they got different things to do then... like foreign truckers with summer tires jamming up roads with inclines)
But when it's "obvious" that the driver had the opportunity to clean it and did not, then there's little excuse and if you are stopped by a random traffic control with unreadable plates or really dirty plates it might cost some money.
So people at least try to keep their plates clean most of the time.
(The threat of a possible fine sometimes is enough. With using their phones during driving, the threat sadly is not enough, the addiction is stronger with many people)
And the second big reason to keep it clean is the growing number of automatic license plate readers like with toll stations or some parking garages.
@@nirfz Almost all parking garages here have automatic plate readers but they dont use tolls here 🤔I think the cops in my city are pretty lazy though. You often see them speeding too and sometimes even running red lights.
as soon as he said "rest of the world" i remembered the metric system :)
Correct a Skoda leaving the production line in the CSZ is designed and build to the same international specifications/standards as a Hyundai/Kia build in Korea.
European/ outside US made Fords also follow the international specifications/standards.
Only the domesticly US models are different 🤦♂
"Rest of the world" = "place I have never been"?
@@obelic71 Absolutely - Australian Fords were lovely cars, so Ford USA closed them down. Australian cops now drive BMWs.
We also produce NAR (North American Region) and RDW models.
It starts at the car body. Making cars for US market much more safer than RDW models. The lower body and side body parts get many reinforced and high strength sheet metal parts.
Making the vehicle much more heavy too.
I noticed it on the Lamboghini Urus we build. You cant lift NAR side body parts and you will drop it if you forget to switch the handling to NAR. While the side body will fly off if you forgot to set it back to RDW^^.
Non memory seats for NAR vehicles also get their position programmed to adjust airbag timings! Thats why US variants always have an electric driver seat with memory function. While Canadian variants can have non memory driver seeats wich then need to get programmed too.
@@obelic71 Only three countries in the world still use the Imperial system - odd that Americans stick to the Mile, yards etc that were from the hated British... I believe American Industries/companies that deal with exports, are required to produce products using the SI (metric) system. Why can't Americans understand the Metric system anyway? It is just based on multiples of 10. Afterall you use metric money - 100cents = 1$
BMW's have indicators?!!!
Yeah, all four of them indicate when you open or lock the car! 🤪
Apparently - but BMW drivers are too arrogant to use them.
no, this clearly is special equipment which automatically gets deactivated the moment a braindead person enters the car.
@@SusanMadge-vl9gxno, they are too stupid to find the switch
No, indicators on BMW‘s only come with the higher end models.
I really like how the German plates have that regional "Land" (/State) coat of arms on them - adds some historical flavour to them. Wish the Polish plates also included those
Especially, when Polish plates are divided on top level by voivodeship and each has it's own coat of arms. Honestly I think that German plates are best from all EuroBand designs
I think that Austrian plates are the best in EU. You get nice coat of arms of your region, big letters, decent plate, no orange background. But plenty of EU states have very bland plates with basically EU flag, country letters, some letters and digits and that's it. Coat of arms on plates in EU are actually rare and that's a shame, because they can look so good.
@@MJ-uk6lu Similar with the Slovenian plates
@@MJ-uk6lu Meanwhile my country (SIngapore) has quite an elaborate system for license plate background colour:
Black: passenger vehicles (except public buses), but you can legally swap for license plates with white background at the front & orange @ the rear
Orange (rear) & white (front): Goods vehicles & public buses (again you can also legally swap for black license plates)
Orange (both front & rear): Vehicles carrying hazardous goods
Blue & green: Vehicle under R&D
Green: Vehicle used only on (island) _Pulau Ubin_
Red & orange; diagonal pattern: Restricted use e.g. airport apron vehicles, shuttle buses operating only within Sentosa island
Red & orange; horizontal pattern: Classic cars (can be legally driven for 40 days/yr but have less legal limits on their duration of ownership (otherwise most vehicles can only be owned for 10-20 yrs))
Red: Off-peak car (which can only be used at evening/night on weekdays & not during weekend mornings, unless you buy a permit, but have lower taxes)
@@lzh4950 That's kinda cool, but so very complicated.
In the EU, some manufacturers now also flash the brake lights (e.g. BMW) as a signal for emergency braking. Sometimes useful here in Germany at over 200 km/h (approx 124 mph)
If I've understood correctly, EU legislation now requires all new cars to flash brake lights whenever the car is decelerating faster than a given limit which I think is close to 0.3 G.
@@MikkoRantalainen Right. Flashing brake lights or automatically rear warning lights (rear indicators). Before it was voluntarily and a very special thing for more than ten years at f.e. BMW and french cars like Peugeot with automatically warning lights.
Depends on the cars, there are many systems back to the mid 2000.
Going from widening the brakelight surface (BMW from 2004-2008)
To flashing 3rd brake light (Opel from the time)
To activate the hazards under 30 km/h (20mph) with an emergency brake over 80 km/h (50mph)
To use the hazards with an high flashing count during an E brake (french cars)
Now there are only two systems left :
-flashing of all brakelights and hazards at stand still
-high intermittent flashing of the hazards and activating the normal hazards at stand still.
Depends on the car brand.
And/or add all indicators flashing (warning flashing)
Those things are great! Plenty of bridges here where you can't set the traffic jam on the other side, so sometimes you need to brake fast. If you see the car in front of you with those brake lights, you get a lot more time to react to this fast breaking.
About the license plate. I get that US license plate is "nice" but it's there to display registration of the vehicle. I feel that US license plate is too cluttery. It looks like an advertisement poster.
They kinda lool like sign posters you pulled from an amusement park
I prefer american license plates because their varieties make them harder to be read by automatic radars.
@@AngelinaJolie734 to get away with crime? Thats illegal in most of the countries...
@@AngelinaJolie734 and harder to be read after an accident. So, the person nearly killing you or your kid will never be caught and hasn't to pay for your treatment. BIG PLUS!
@Smiling Shadow is that the reason crime is that high in US
9:05 safety is a luxury item in the US ? That really feels weird.
Well, ambulances in US are surely a luxury and it is indeed weird
Don't pretend it's not the same everywhere else.
@@bencze465 do you have an example ?
That first side by side of the BMW and that white car is ridiculous. The us car looks about 40 years older 😂
@@bencze465 coming from a third world Asian nation, are you joking fr? Safety is luxury for you?
Must be a pain to differentiate between pulse braking and hazard lights in case of US red indicators.
I've seen some imported cars from the US here in Switzerland that still have these lights (which is illegal btw) and it is VERY confusing, everytime it takes me a second to see that the car in front of me isn't actually breaking with one of his lights broken but is instead just an import that is not street legal.
I'm also swiss & can 100% second what that guy before me said. Currently spending 2 months in America and it really is a fking struggle.
Imagine not having the hazard lights go off when the brakes are slammed on the highway. US would be just more red
@@bastiwen Most people argue the wrong way around when they say red indicators are bad. It's not the fact that you can't see an indicator; it's more you get used to flashing red, so then the brake lights aren't as obvious. The US ran tests where they compared vehicles where one model had had amber indicators and then another model year had red indicators. What they found was in situations where a car was breaking and turning rear end collisions were 10% higher on the red indicator version, and in situations where the indicators weren't even being used such as emergency breaking on a highway the red indicated car still had a 4.5% higher chance of being rear ended.
It's not missing the indicators that's the problem, it's the fact that driving behind a vehicle with red indicators desensitises you to the red brake lights.
@@stainlessteele5 But that's only from an American perspective since you are used to this way, when you are used to the other way around it looks like the car is constently braking, that's why ai stated my country of origin, to give the additional context.
I'm not saying you're wrong about the effect it has in the US though.
in germany, the front fog lights are optional while the rear light is mandatory. the front can be used in rain, snow and fog obviously. It is only allowed to use the rear fog light, when the visibility is below 50 meters. Smart people switch it off when traffic caught up to them. It really burns into your eyes. If someone turns it on and there is no poor visibility, this means you are following too closely and should maintain more distance.
I've not seen anyone else mention it, but the reason you tend to have more airbags in the US is, historically, you haven't had mandated seat belt use whilst it's heavily enforced in the EU/UK. Not sure what the legal status is, of seat belt use in the US, but I believe it still varies from state to state.
True. Also a lot of good cars didn’t make it to the US, as there was/is an unbelted driver crash test 😮
Some of those cars were very safe, but no EU/JDM designer ever imagined there were still unbelted drivers.
I know TVR passed all tests apart from unbelted.
@@DontPanicDear This is only true for 1 state on the US
@@DontPanicDear Cars in the USA is like European cars back in the 70s and 80s. I have been to the USA several times, and it feels very much like going 30-40 years back in time.
A few things that might be interesting:
- Eu-Spec also has such reflectors. However, these are not yellow and on the side, but red at the back and clear at the front and can be installed in the light. So if you shine a light on a parked car at night, it also reflects.
- If you turn on the rear fog lights in Germany, you can only drive 50 km/h, even on the autobahn. This is derived from the fact that it may only be switched on when visibility is less than 50 meters. Fog lights and rear fog lights can therefore also be switched independently of one another.
- Many manufacturers in the EU also offer two-part versions for the side mirrors. The inside is then flat and on the outside you have a strongly curved area.
- In many EU countries number plates are written in a font which makes it impossible to forge the characters with a pen or tape. (6 to 8, I to L, etc.)
EU number plates also have like a hologram in the plates that can be seen at certain angle or polarized glass.
here in denmark it is reflective and a hand with a eye hologram inside. one of the measures to spot fake plates from a distance.
another is the starting number. its in categories that shows if it belong on a van or regular car.
I owned a car with this feature in the mirror and you could then see the car through the side window window, when leaving the mirror, during a pass. Sadly my last car haven't got it.
i don't know about current laws for this, but for many decades reflective number plates were optional in germany and we always had them to make the car more visible (when number plate lights were broken, or even while they were working)
thats only partially true.
-eu spec vehicles have to have orange sidemarkers as well but only starting at a certain lenght of the vehicle. but in the eu if they reach that lenght the sidemarkers also need to include an orange light. you can see that starting at the size of transporters all the way up to 40t trucks and their trailers.
-if you turn on your rear fogs in germany you are not directly limited to 50kmh. you are limited to 50kmh as soons as visibility drops to 50m or less. and thats where you are only allowed to turn on rear fogs. the limits happen at the same time but are not linked to each other. so if you turn on your fogs illegaly when visibility is good you are not limited to 50kmh you are just using the fogs when not allowed to.
To add to this, while rear fog lights are mandated in pretty much every European country, front fog lights are optional.
More recently, new cars sold require forward collision warning and avoidance (which nowadays uses radar, so also usually get adaptive cruise), and as of 2023, back-up camera. These are still optional features in US-specced cars (aside from the back-up camera I think).
Some features enabled by having separate amber turn signals as opposed to combined red break/signal, is that in the EU you will see flashing break lights to signal strong breaking/emergency breaking, to better get the attention of the driver behind. Also, you can use you hazards when driving, to signal a danger (like slipery road), and is even mandatory when approaching the back of a traffic jam. But apparently, because the US doesn't mandate separate bulbs and colors, these features are forbidden, due the difficulty to differentiate breaking from blinkers (only the third break light distinguishes the two).
In Sweden it's actually prohibited to use hazards when the car is moving. I have never heard of anyone getting fined for it, though.
The correct word is brake not break.😊❤
@@ovekarlsson777 In the UK it used to be illegal to use the Hazard lights when moving except for on a 'Bus when the bus driver wanted to alert the Police to a problem on board. It is though common to use the Hazard lights to draw attention to a queue ahead on a Motorway, etc.
@@ovekarlsson777in Sweden it's not prohibited to use the hazard lights when driving, you should use them to warn others incase of accidents, dangers on the road etc. It's only prohibited if you use it for the wrong reasons(if there's no danger around you). I mean the police and räddningstjänsten made a statement last year that drivers should turn on the hazards lights if u see sirens, both to show that you have seen the sirens and to make other drivers on the road notice the situation.
@@S0T1S yeah doesn't make any sense to be prohibited. if you have to stop to use then it negates 90% cases when you would want to alert others. When you notice that conditions are not normal always turn them on, something as simple as slowdown on highway is enough to use them.
Been some time since I got my driver's license; as far as I remember, the fog light ("Nebelschlussleuchte" in German) is mandatory, has to be at the driver's side of the car, and has to be way brighter than the regular tail lights. It's a great safety feature in poor visibility situations like fog, heavy rain or snow, as it allows you to better gauge the distance to the next car ahead (or even see them in the first place)
In Germany you actually shouldn't use it/are not allowed to use it (so I was told in Fahrschule) when it is raining. Simple reason for that: Very bright light + mirroring street = bad
@@hfgd_gaming Also in the Netherlands you can get finned for overusing your fog lights. Here its not allowed because it can reflect with the rain causing the person behind you to see nothing. The distance for the rear light to be used must be when your vision is less than 50 meters ,for the front light (also a thing, but less common) its around 100 meters.
@@proman9849 front and rear fogs should only be used in Fog in the UK, it is an offence to use them at other times but no one gets prosecuted for doing so.
@@proman9849 we have the same/a similar rule here. Back: only vision under 50m. Front: no limits, also allowed when it is raining.
Also: You are only allowed to go 50 km/h with the "Nebelschlussleuchte" (back fog light) on
I learned (in Germany) the fog lights on the back are only for use in fog with a sight under 50meter.
The fog lights on the front are allowed general in conditions with bad sight including rain.
I've noticed that on some US cars when you have the hazards on (or if someone forgets to turn them off) , the only way to tell that the car is slowing down is by the top mounted brake light (now imagine the bulbs pop on that third brake light, now you have no way to tell the dude is slowing down) ... Also, I've noticed US cars don't have a warning triangle cubby in the trunk like we do. That little piece of plastic saved my ass when I had a flat on the highway (in EU it's mandatory to setup a warning triangle atleast 100 meters behind your broken down car). I was changing the tire on the shoulder and all of a sudden I hear a bang and my triangle flying... Someone drifted onto the shoulder (probably an exhausted motorist heading to the Adriatic sea from Czechia or Poland). That bang woke him up and he got back into his lane...After that experience I always make sure every car I buy has a warning triangle (people like to take them while selling, donno why 🤷♂️)
Funny trivia, in Denmark the warning triangle isn't mandatory to have in the car, BUT you are required to put one up if the need arises...
You don't use rear fogs in heavy rain, especially at night. It just makes a large red glare and obliterates the brake light/s.
You generally use them if visibility is below 50m though, and that can happen in very heavy rain. It really helps identifying the car.
@@chrissim4386No, not generally. Only in fog, if visibility range drops below 50m. Most people also forget to slow down to 50km/h or below.
The reason for flat rear view mirrors on the drivers's side and convex mirrors with the text "objects in the mirror are closer than they appear" on the passenger's side is probably the same. We don't need those in Europe. Here, the latter is common knowledge.
The text is just to inform that it's a convex part in it, as there still are plenty of full flat mirrors in use.
@@BPo75 There might be some full flat mirrors in the world -- the last I have driven cars with full flat mirrors was in the 1970s. All cars after that had convex mirrors on both sides of the car.
@@McGhinch Forgot to mention that, outside Cuba, Sweden per capita probably has the largest fleet of American cars from the 1940's - 1960's lol
European style all the way
Man after my own heart 🤟🔥🥇💯
Absolutely
❤🔥
Couldn't agree more
Yes indeed
Fun Fact: In the Netherlands the 3rd braking light was illegal up to 1993. You would see it either fully removed, the lens replaced by a plastic piece, or just the bulbs removed. Then regulations made a full 180 and it became mandatory, but only from 2001.
yes, until 1993, braking lights in the EU had to be installed in pairs. You could have an extra pair of braking lights, but not one single extra braking light.
One of these instances where America was ahead of the time.
Meanwhile I learnt that Malaysia requires 3rd brake lights not only on cars but on buses too, so public buses run by operators into there from neighbouring SIngapore have those lights added on them. The MB Citaro, a common bus model, did come with a 3rd brake light but looks like 1 of the operators deleted that option as that model wasn't initially the one designated to operate into Malaysia. When it was, the brake light was installed lower than its original placement anyway though, maybe to meet Malaysian regulations
@dieks77 It might have been an EU regulation. In Germany it was the same.
You do NOT use rear or front fog lights in heavy rain! It glares off the wet road and blinds other drivers bot in front and rear. Use fog lights ONLY in heavy fog and extremely low visibility like heavy snow blizzard!
There is a lot of number plate recognition tech on UK and European roads. Speed cameras, average speed cameras and car park charges. These depend on accurate entry and exit from a zone, so clear front and rear end number plates are necessary.
I generally prefer not just the functionality, but also the look of European license plates. While it might be true that US plates have far more varied and unique designs, all too often those designs just aren't in line with the overall aesthetics of the car. In fact, the more elaborate the design gets, the less likely it is to suit the (generally sleek and clean) design of the car.
Even under the best of circumstances, it would be kind of like putting up a Delacroix painting as decoration in an ultra sleek modernist lobby. No matter how brilliant the painting is, it just doesn't suit its environment. And let's face it, no American license plate actually comes _close_ to comparing to a Delacroix, so in many/most cases it's actually more like slapping a cheap and overly cluttered advertising poster on the wall of your carefully designed lobby.
I think, that there is an additional part to consider: european cars are designed to have these licence plates front and back.
quite rare but legal too: double height licence plates. half as wide, twice as high and two lines. especially usefull for motor cycles and for jeeps. probably a nod to the north american style where sometimes you just can't fit a european licence plate into the area where it is supposed to go.
I totally agree - since 1973, all UK plates (on new vehicles, older ones can still have the white/silver on black) must not only conform to a standard format and font size, they also have a reflective background (yellow on the rear, white on the front), which makes them a whole lot easier to read at night (and for speed cameras to catch you!). It's also mandatory for every vehicle to have a front plate (with the exception of motorcycles/scooters), also any trailer/caravan has to show the same plate as the towing vehicle. Any European plate can have a small blue tab on the left showing the country, with/without a flag, in the UK we now can have a green tab to show EV's..! While we CAN buy a 'personalised plate', (some are worth more than the car they are on!) it still has to follow the format, so we can only choose certain letter/number combintations that resemble a word, or a persons initials, we don't have the 'vanity' plates like you guys across the pond do!
@@raycardy4843 see, that's one thing I always wanted to ask and that I think is really clever: having different colors for the front and back plate. I can imagine that there is a clever reason behind this, the only thing I can think of is, that it could be a security feature for driving at night. there can be situations where somebody needs to know if that is the back or the front side of a vehicle.
by the way, I'm from austria, and here caravans or other trailers are supposed to have their own different licence plates.
the only situation that I can think of, where a third licence plate with the same code is required are those bike transporters that are just mounted onto the back of the car. here in austria, they get a RED licence plate with the same code as the vehicle.
but that stuff is rare.
I love our various State plates, but I mostly agree with what you said actually 🎉 I don’t like the standard Illinois plate so much.. but each state has usually around 10 alternate designs you can opt for, so for example to have a clean looking car, my Crown Victoria police interceptor is all black, so I naturally got a Black Illinois plate to match 👍😎
To me the aesthetics of the plates shouldn't be a factor.
Let's face it, if we didn't need plates on cars, no-one would go and just stick one on a car to make it look better.
They are there because they are needed, and they need to be read.
So it should be 100% function over form...any designs added to improve aesthetics simply reduce the functionality of it.... making a purely functional piece of the car less functional.
I remember, my mates boss imported three VW Passat's from the US into Germany, with all the bells and whistles back in the nineties. In the US, due to exchange rate the were pretty cheap. However, he had to spend thousands to get them up to spec' back then. He lost out financially in the end.
Why did he inport german car from us back to Germany is he dumb? 😂
he'd probably curse this choice for many other reasons. US passats generally have a WAY worse fit and finish and overall quality compared to the European built ones
@@TheChill001 Just like other cars assembled in the USA.
Look at Tesla, the most sold car in my country. We buy them directly from China, because the ones assembled in america is shit.
Other thing: In EU, we have LED Matrix headlights - these headlights are able to shut off individual parts of their beam. This means that the maximum amount of the road remains illuminated (on high beam), while small parts are darkened to avoid blinding other drivers. You can check it on multiple videos, I prefer Audi or Mercedes with Digital LED matrix headlights.
In US, active headlights were banned. But I heard its changing now.
PS: I also know people with police Crown Vics here in Czech republic :))
For example this one is perfect ruclips.net/video/xe66enKPLHk/видео.html
Active headlights are a thing in the USA now, but I’m sure were banned at one point long ago, our Subaru has auto-sensing /auto dimming high beams and headlights that turn also when you turn the wheels.
PS: that’s so cool! 😎🎉 the Crown Victoria is one of my favorite American cars of all time (especially the police interceptor) and I’m Not even a Ford guy. They’re just a joy to drive
@@IWrocker Active headlights are also available in OZ but tend to be only available in higher spec'd cars. Rear foglights are rare and usually only found on Japenese or some Euro imports. The reinforced bumper is a relic of the past in OZ. Pedestrian safety requirements have mostly removed it. However, due in part to roos bull bars are popular additions in some areas.
@@IWrocker MAtrix headlights are a whole other level up from active headlights. They can stay on high beam, even with traffic, because they just block out the bit that would hit other vehicles. The top of the range Mercs can even project warning symbols onto the road.
@@Xenon0000000000001 wow I wasn’t aware of those matrix lights.. they sound awesome 🎉 I wouldn’t have any idea if some cars have those on Top spec US cars but I bet they are rare here if any
That was interesting.
I'm used to EU spec and I prefer the look and functionality of it. Number plates, specifically, are about legibility for me. It's a kind of formal document after all so I've never thought about the need for them to be fun looking. In some countries we do have a little more room creativity (or rather the governments do) as tiny local and or country coats of arms are included on the plate so we can entertain ourselves in the traffic jams with recognising those :)
In Europe, red turn signals are outlawed because they can be confused with brake lights. Here, all turn signals have to be amber to be easily recognizable,especially when used as warning lights.
In Germany, red turn signals were allowed until 1.1.1970. All cars which were registered before this date, may have red turn signals. For all cars registered after this date, amber turn signals are mandatory.
In Germany, not in the whole of Europe.
@@mjouwbuisCorrect, red turn signals are allowed in the Netherlands (as shown in the video)
From the Netherlands here: I have once seen those red turn signals, it was immediate stress because for a moment my instinct kicked in and I thought the guy in front of me had activated ESP or ABS, so I braked hard because there was danger I hadn't seen! Turns out he was just making a turn.
I respectfully disagree, I think the amber lights are better, but red brake lights that double as indicators still work, when the red indicator is on, it’s easy to tell that it’s a turn signal, as the speed/rhythm it illuminates at can’t be replicated by pulsing the brakes(as the car would have 3 brake lights as opposed to 1, and the car would be nose diving/stuttering) 😅
@@IWrocker I mean it does work just badly. it is not easy to tell in emergency so it lowers your reaction time and that is big difference. Also when red is used for turning and breaking that means if you see in periphery of your vision it might not draw attention since you are also used to it just being turn.
So like yeah it does work but I think that we should use every tool available to prevent accidents.
@@IWrocker It's not a case of pulsing the brakes, but on newer (2010 and later) cars the brake lights flash (like turn signal indicators would) in case of rapid deceleration (emergency stop) to signal danger to other drivers. This means that when we see a flashing red light on the back of a car, we think to better hit the brakes fast or we'll be ploughing straight into the back of them.
@@IWrocker It was a thing of the moment, I saw a pulsating braking light which means ESP or ABS must have been activated (that later turned out to be a turn signal), it caused some red lights in my head but lasted only for a second or so until I realized it was just a turning signal. There was nobody behind me but if there was he would have asked himself why I was braking so hard haha
@@IWrocker it’s just a matter of habit. We are not exposed to many of these brake lights in Europe so we don’t even think about them being turn signals. If you travel to the US you’ll realize it quickly. But yeah you would be a bit surprised at first.
When I lived in Germany for a couple of years it was easier to get my Land Rover imported than my wife's Ford. The only thing I needed to add to the Rover was flashing stop lights, when the brake is pressed the lights flash 3-5 times before being solid brake lights. For the Ford I had to add the side turn signals, and some other safety equipment that was not standard for North America. Of course both had to pass the TÜV inspection, a TÜV certification ensures that a product, service, or process has been tested for safety and that it complies with the requirements of national, regional, and international regulations. They look at wheel play, brake run out, brake lines, steering, seat belts, horns, engine leaks, corrosion, brake lights, horn and a lot of other things, if anyone of these is found faulty you will not be able to renew the registration.
Think it was Mercedes that started the trend of installing turn indicator lights on side mirrors, with the W211
Nice video!❤
One important thing is missing: european "uneven" headlights. While right headlight is designed to illuminate a shape of triangle (the farther right it goes higher), left headlight keeps flat illumination profile so it does not blind the driver of a car coming towards you.
is it not the same as on US cars? it should be a safety regulation, funny how you assumes some things are mandatory but they don't. ANd this is the same country that banned Kinder surprises :)
Unfortunately this was only true till the came up with LED headlights…
Asymmetrical headlight beams, yup.
@@vadym8713Up until pretty recently there were some federal regulations concerning headlights in the USA that believe it or not was from the 1930's. They got amended a little here and there but was basically the same until the late 90's/early 2000's.
You know the sealed beam headlights, mostly two on each side, on all American cars? That's one of those regulations, no other lights were allowed. The original rules stated they had to be round in a very specific size, that was later changed to squared units. They couldn't be asymmetrical either, that wasn't allowed.
And the light output was/is absolutely horrible! But the much more effective and safe European headlights were banned.
I live in Germany and I must say, that even while your license plates can sometimes look a bit nicer in regards of design, the EU plates are absolutely more practical and safer in regards. Our plates are designed to fit the car in a proper way that it usually doesn't disturb the design of the car (Usually cars in europe actually are designed with those plates to get mounted right away so that having no plate actually looks like there is something missing sometimes) but also that they can get more easily read by others, by the police and also by automated systems like Traffic cams, Speed-cams (In germany we call those 'Blitzer') and so on. Also we have the mandatory 3 Year Check for our vehicles so that they are allowed to roam the streets, for which we get a badge on the License plate, from which it can be also indicated from a little bit of distance, if the car maybe is overdue (from the color of the badge the police can tell in which year, and on a closer inspection which month it is due) and can stop and fine you for it.
So yeah, I definitely like the EU plates more. For Safety reasons, but also in practicality and actually in the shape it has.
I made me think about new BMWs, why haven't they thought about number plates? :) Also, Italy (and Switzerland) has slightly smaller front plate, probably to look better on Italian sport cars :)
About the blinkers, there's a really obvious and objective argument to be made for the amber blinkers; amber allows you to react immediately to both the brake or turn signal, if they're red you have to wait at least one cycle off the blinker in order to asses if they're breaking or not thus significantly increasing the response time.
the side mirrors in my rental in the US drove me crazy. there was always something hidden in the blind spot. It was crazy. whole F150s just disappeared.
In Euro cars with the mirros, you still have a blind spot, but way smaller.
I agree each time I rented a car in the US I was like WTF 's wrong with driver's mirror !! I can't see shit in that.
I always adjust my mirror that I can see the area direct next to my car in the mirror and when changing lanes or leaving a parking space I look over my shoulders. Takes more time and you need bigger spaces to change into another lane, but that way you eliminate most of the blind areas.
Meanwhile Japan's taxis place their side mirrors on the fender/wing, eliminating blind spots, but possibly causing more injury in case of a pedestrian collision
I drove an Explorer for some time, it was unbelievable how many times i almost hit a vehicle right next to my rear door, while there was nothing seen from the mirror. I had to stick little blind spot mirrors to the mirrors, because it was creating a big risk.
That is very much car dependent tho. You are taught to check over your shoulder in your blind spot in most countries I believe.
I actually dont like the decorated plates because they distract massively from the form of the car. Other plates like the dutch plates are really basic a and so they dont take away so much from the esthetics of the car.
Poor Ian, he’s been listening to American hype his whole life! Glad to see you’re learning so much! 😜😍🇦🇺
I don't think front plates are really needed, but look at the Alfa Romeo, the plates on the side of the bumper look really cool! In Italy there are smaller license plates than in the rest of the EU, in Poland you can choose similar ones as an option.
In the UK we have two colours, White for the front plate and Yellow for the rear plate. That way you can tell which way the car is traveling in some low light conditions and no lights have been turned on at that point I.e. dusk or dawn. Also having two plates mean that if you have a Dash-cam you have the registration of the other vehicle involved in any incident, also works with rear Dash-cam's in the case of hit and run from behind.
The UK also has two shapes - cars normally use the long, rectangular ones, while motorbikes use squarer ones, with the "number" split over two lines. The latter style can also be used on cars though and often appears on Land Rovers and the like, where the square plate will fit to the side of the rear door, where a rectangular plate would be too long. Sometimes the squarer plate can be seen at the front on sports cars, where the longer plate would cover air intakes.
American spec cars look so outdated with those oranges in the headlights 😅
Orange Park lights as well, not turn signals...😅
Not to mention, US-spec vehicles require amber parking lights, most of them even illuminate amber when the car running, they act like DRLs.
I much prefer the yellow or white parking lights, amber parking lights are prohibited in Europe. Also most trucks and buses in Europe have two white clearance lights on the front and two red clearance lights on the rear. White clearance lights definitely looks better than five amber and red identification lights when all vehicle exceed 79.9 inches wide.
Even RAM ProMaster (US version of Fiat Ducato/Citroën Jumper/Peugeot Boxer) has five amber and red identification lights, while European versions does not.
RAM ProMaster lacks a 3rd brake light, but Fiat Ducato/Citroën Jumper/Peugeot Boxer has a 3rd brake light.
The thing is with the rear fog lights, that you don't usually see it in Europe as well, because (at least in Germany) it is only allowed to turn it on in foggy conditions with 50m or less sight. Because it's very bright and can potentially distract others.
And regarding the license plate, i prefer the sleeker design of the euro plates, but the yellow on the NL plates is a bit of a downer to me. In my opinion, Switzerland found the best way with a similar style on the back (just white instead of yellow) but much smaller plates on the front.
Yeach in Poland its similar. Its really hard to tell whetewer you are allowed to use them. So in practice i havent seen them used yet ( Also i have rode in such heavy fog maybe once, and i actualy forgot those lights even exist at that Time)
Here in Ireland we have the white plates with black text and until 2013 we had a very simple, logical format for the registration number: xx - yy - zzzz (year - county - number, eg: 12-D-1234 /08-C-5678 etc). Prior to 1988 we used the UK style letters and number formats (eg: ZV 1234) which just wasn't as clear.
Since 2013 they added an extra number to the year format to identify if the car was sold in the first or second half of the year, eg: 131-D-1234 or 142-G-5678. The problem with this in my view is that it's again not as easy to read and was an unnecessary change intended to help spread car sales over the calendar year (in Ireland a lot of people are more interested in the age of a car than anything else) rather than any real necessity.
On the front side markers/parking lights being amber.... To me that just, like the rear indicators being red, causes confusion. Amber lights here as in this video mean the car is turning. I have seen modified EU spec cars where they are using the front indicators as US style parking lights but it just looks like an electrical fault and confusing. In Europe at least, almost all newer cars have white LED DRLs at this point which is also far clearer (although we do have an issue where the front of the car will be lit up with DRLs but the back remains dark which causes problems in bad weather or dark conditions if the driver hasn't realised that they don't have their lights on). In this situation the Nordic countries have it right with mandating front AND rear DRLs.
Anyway that's enough about registration plates and lights for one post 😂
@@img00 Yeah, some countries are quite confusing with their registration plates.
I like the german plates there. It’s just XY-YX-1234 with the first block of letters showing roughly the place they’re registered, which is mostly the county town (if that’s the term for it), and the rest you can choose.
You see the US style headlights with the amber in it and the red rear indicators here as well, but these are mostly cars from the dealers around the US military bases. And i think you can only get these speced models as an american. Who else would want that anyways, right?
Orange British and Netherlandian plates look so bad.
My 2010 Volvo has Amber side side/parking lights on the front as well as white front facing side lights. It also has DRL/permanently on headlights from a time when it wasn't mandatory here in the UK or EU. Even the tail lights are permanently on. The super safe Swedes really covered all bases.
With the permanent darkness way up north we figured out early on that it was just simpler to demand the headlights be on all year round than making sure idiots turned them on when required. As such I hate DRLs because they are much less visible in twilight conditions which we get a lot of during the summer, and manufacturers don't switch to normal headlights early enough, and so it can get scary sometimes when you are expecting it to be a parked car when it starts moving.
its a volvo/swedish thing, on all swedish cars before we joined the EU the headligts are impossible to turn off, like my 84 golf has 3 headlight modes low beam on with ignition, parking lights and finaly low beam and parking lights. Modern volvos always keep the taillights on in AUTO mode even with DRL but you can turn them off manualy by putting it into the DRL mode("0"). Modern volvos also turn the DRL on if you are using the parking light mode when driving
About the license plates: The font on modern German license plate was specifically designed for this use. Every letter in the "europlate" font has slightly different proportions so that e.g. the R would still be recognized as an R, even if the colour of the lower right line was less visible. On the old font this kind of error would have made the R look like a P. This is only an example but it also really helps with visibility.
It was also meant to prevent manipulation e.g. by taping over parts of letters to make them look like another letter. Every letter and number is unique.
10:20: Not only in the US and Canada they do not know how to use the rear foglights, here in the Netherlands and EU there are many drivers who don't know. RFL should only be used when the sight is below 50 m to the car in front of you.
Front and rear foglights should be on all car sold in Canada. With our cold winter rear and front rearlights are very useful during big snowstorms where the visibility down.
You can actually get UK plates in the US shape - they still must have the same colour/font/spacing, but in the squarer aspect ratio. This is useful not only for imported US cars but also for taxis that need to display a second plate next to the license plate displaying its taxi registration details.
This is true for most countries in Europe. In Sweden, however, you are only able to order an american style plate if the car was made for a smaller plate from the beginning (mostly US imports).
Those are what I would call a “motorcycle plate” style
@@JM-rb2or Meanwhile in Singapore you can get American style plates too with the text printed on 2 lines instead of 1 (like in the UK) which're required for grey import cars from Japan (where license plates & thus their holders are American style, but Japanese manufacturers may make non-grey import versions of these cars with Europe-style license plate holders instead e.g. Honda H-RV vs Vezel, Jazz vs Fit). Think we & Malaysia are also one of the few countries to require motorcycles to have front license plates too. Previously they were mounted perpendicular & sticking upwards from the front wheel's top cover, so they could be read from the sides instead from the front, but they've since been changed to being pasted just above/below the motorcycle's headlights instead, probably to reduce injury to pedestrians in case of collision
License plates should be functional and easy to read. I think if people wouldn't mind a bit bigger plates in the US, there could be narrow easy to read ones and wider still easy to read ones but with extra free space for decorational graphics. If both are legal, people can take their pick.
Just put a sticker on the back to show the state. It's what we had in the EU before we integrated country code in the licenceplate. We had stickers with the country code.
If you take a look at Slovenian and austrian liense plates they got you covered. On the far left you have the blue ribbon with the EU circle of stars and the county code underneath (A fo Austria and SLO for Slovenia) then you get one or two letters on the left that tell where the car is registered (federal state in austria and i think region in slovenia) followed by the coat of arms of said area and then you get whatever letters and numbers the local law requires or a personalized one (that costs extra).
Those coats of arms are of course in colour and as big as the letters/numbers, and voila... there's the local flavor and regional pride covered.
The german plates also feature something like that, but it's so small that you can't really see it unless the car is stationary and you are very close. (it s in a smal circle maybe as big as a 2€)
don't worry, also many people in Europe don't know how to use the rear fog lights.
Some people either don't turn them on at all no matter how bad the visibility is (there are some extremists who manage to drive with just front DRLs all night), others seem to turn the fog lights on the minute they get in the car and don't care they are grilling your retina while the weather is clear and you're standing 2 meters behind them on the light intersection.
As a European sadly, I’m saying that you are 100% right about this
front fog lights are allowed to be used anytime... and they are okay... cause they beam low and wide... in my microcar they help alot with the visibility especially when doing curves... cause the normal/highbeams just go straight and 0 visibility into curves... the rear fog light has clear indication when it can be used an that is by visibility being
@@luxaly9510 Highway code 236 states otherwise (UK at least)
@@luxaly9510 for Europe, that's incorrect. E. g. in Germany, fog lights in the front are only allowed to be used in "significantly reduced visibility conditions due to fog, snowfall or rain".
@@MattiBlume mhm as far as i know from Austria only the rear is limited in use ... for visibility =
For correction: the lighting system on the side or in the external rear view mirror housing is called "side turn signal repeaters", not "side markers".
One thing he did not get into, but wish he would. How much better EU spec headlights are. I have a 2003 Land Rover Discovery. The US spec headlights were terrible, they put light everywhere but where you wanted to see. I managed to get a set of EU spec lights from Germany. Even though they are not projector lights, they have a projector like cut off that puts all the light on the ground in a nice even spread. I can actually see where I am going.
As a bonus, clear parking lights.
For the license plate, you got to remember/realize, that most European countries do photographic speed checks via speed cameras. So the license plate needs to be clear and readable from a distance and angle. That is probably the main reason, why it is so functional.
So, aesthetically you got hit by a car with a nicely designed number plate, but unfortunately functionally you couldn't make it out ... 😂
Facts 🤣🤣
Ever since the first time I ever saw a foreign license plate I had always had the same impression. Clear, concise, and easy to read. Have you been in the DMV to take a look at the available types of license plates you can get. It’s unreal. So much diversity in graphics and color that it’s hard to determine what state a license plate even came from much less what is actually printed on them.
@Smiling Shadow If THAT is the point you took from that post than i'm sure you know all about illiteracy.
Gary Larsen made a great cartoon about the passenger mirror. The text about objects being closer is readable, and the view FILLED with an eyeball.
Best license plates are the ones of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The front license plate is a mini version of the rear plate. Also, they have the crest of the each canton.
I like Australia’s options when it comes to plates. You can get Australian style, American style Japanese style or European style. Then each style has a range of different colours and designs. We basically have a plate that will suit pretty much every car on the planet.
That is hella cool 😎 and pretty unique I’d say 🎉
To be fair thats easy to do when you’re all by yourself as a country.
In europe you got folks for dozens of different countries driving IN a dozens of different countries
Yep. Personalized plates give you a ton of options in Australia. Here in Victoria, DC fans can have (Batman, Wonderwoman, Green Lantern, Flash, Superman or Supergirl) on their plates. Loony Toons fans get heaps of choices, but I think Tasmanian Devil's the most appropriate. And I saw you can even have a Ford or Holden logo on your number plate if you want it.
Really? It's like that in Australia? I wish I could chose an American style plate in Europe, but no way! Very strict rules!
In Norway, you can have a number plate that is the same size as US, IF your car or truck can't fit an EU size one.
Rear fog lights are actually not allowed to be used in heavy rain fall, as the reflections can be blinding for traffic behind you when its raining, they're only allowed in deep fog/heavy snowfall where visibilty is lower than 50meters which I believe is around 164 feet.
I use a rear fog light only when there is nobody behind me and when there is dense fog. I just want to be seen soon enough. But as soon as there is someone right behind me, who has already spotted me and starts trailing me, i turn it off. Wish all would do it alike.
Many people here in Germany use them wrong. Autobahn, night, no rain or fog or whatever but some noobs always have them on. I love to get blinded by those...
You can't say the rear fog lights are not allowed in the rain if the Polish road code specifically says about using fog lights in all low visibility scenarios listing "fog, rain and other". It has been like that since 1997.
And it makes sense. When you are going on a highway in the rain with highway speeds the amount of water lifted of the ground alone is able to make the car in front of you disappear in its own mist.
@@darek4488 interesting, in the Netherlands that isn't the case.
@@herb6677 I wish more people were like you! I hate it being in heavy slow moving traffic in the fog, everyone is doing 30/40 mph a mere 10/20ft from teh car in front and there are still people with dazzling fog lamps on.
You thought American cars are better? That's funny. Here in Germany we have a very clear opinion about American cars. Some have a very nice sound, especially the older ones. But in fact the sound is the only reason why somebody would buy an American car. We know they are shit 😂😂
German/Swedish demands have slowly become EU demands on cars.
I remember the days that Fiats and Alfa Romeos lost 5% of their weight on each speed bump in the form of rust...
@@dutchman7623 I thought that was said about French cars.
@@KeesBoons French cars did rust as well, but some Italian cars could not be left outside in the rain.
French cars had problems with the floor and construction, you always needed an anti rust treatment of the underside immediate after you bought them, to make them last longer.
But quality from both countries improved a lot!
@@dutchman7623 Thank you. I drive a French car. Just never heard it being said about Italian cars.
Same in Australia - which makes a US road trip a real challenge 😃
I live in EU and i'm a BMW fan, there is a bif difference in the engine ( mostly of the BMWs i used ). The EU spec BMWs come with aluminium blocks while the US specs come with iron cast blocks and that's a big W for US cuz whenever we try to build something the first thing we look for is an US spec car for donor parts mostly the block
12:16 It's the same reason I like small "USDM spec" license plates as a European. Another cool thing about these small license plates, is that in my country they can have up to 4 full size symbols, which I think is very cute, though some of them just use license plates that are the same size as motorcycle ones, but not all cars are compatible with them because these license plates are a bit taller.
As to the amount airbags, in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe it is compulsory to wear seatbelts when driving in a car, airbags add to that basic safety. In the US it is still advisory to wear a seatbelt (Buckle up….. as seen on many car ads). Also there used to be Eurospec airbags which were smaller because of the compulsory seatbelts.
But all differences run deeper than that, just the difference in attaining a driving license in US or Netherlands or Germany for example….
Meanwhile in Singapore taxis were exempted from needing airbags supposedly as they weren't deemed to make commercial sense, perhaps as taxi drivers were seen as more experienced & thus less likely to get into accidents, but one still got killed when he got T-boned by a 599GTO that beat the traffic lights. Anyway I don't think there're any car models that have airbag-free versions today though
It has been compulsory to wear seatbelts for 30yrs in the US, with only New Hampshire as a hold out. Learn about a subject before speaking on it.
The reason for only one rear fog light, and often somewhat further away from the other backlights, is that you don't mistake them brake or turninglights. Also in the Netherlands red turning lights are only allowed if it's an original feature of the car. Same for most other specs as plates and mirror's etc.
Another thing about licence plates is that you can customise your plate number for cheap.
In Germany we have a system for plates. The first up to 3 letters are an abbreviation for the cars home city/region (Berlin has B, Munich M, Hamburg HH, ...). The next 2 letters can also be chosen while registering the car. As long as it isn't anything controversial it should work out. And at last you can have up to 4 numbers (most have 3)
Besides controversial combinations there can also be some restrictions in place. For example a couple of years ago in at least one region it was impossible to get the combination "LR" (which a company with that short name based there requested for their cars) because it was reserved exclusively for agricultural vehicles.
AFAIK this is not allowed in The Netherlands. It is allowed in Belgium. The reason for it is that in Belgium the license plate belongs to the person, while in the Netherlands it belongs to the vehicle. So if you buy a new car you get a new plate, while in Belgium the plate transfers to the car.
You can have custom license plates in Poland as well but they're so expensive that it's just not worth it. In fact I was shocked when I've heard that in Germany they cost about 10 euros(?) and we have to pay 250 euros...
@@latacz620€ per reservation, but there are auctions where people sell their rare license plate for thousands of euros and people buyint them
@@latacz6 In Finland custom plates set you back something like 800 euros. And it's just for a single, specified car. If you get a new car, you need to repurchase the plates (for the new car) if you want to keep using them, as far as I know. Still, you occasionally see them, such as STN-666.
I'm in the UK and I've seen those side lights on the American cars in Forza and Gran Turismo, but never realised they had such a purpose! Our front licence plates are actually white, with the rear being yellow and we don't have anything on them except the plate number, no "EU" marker or Country indicator, jus the registration number, and the numbers do mean something here as well, showing where they're from and when they were built! My dad had a little book detailing all of that, it showed if it had these letters your car was from here, say! One thing I didn't see here, but have caught on Wheeler Dealers, the headlights here point to the left so as not to blind oncoming traffic, since we drive on the left here! And I've seen walls of those American State plates in American style restaurants, or "diners", as you like to call them (doesn't feel right calling them that when they're in the UK...), all from different States as well, Nevada, Florida, you name it!
I just wish it was legally required to have amber lights in EU so if you import a car, you have to make it compatible. It's for safety reasons. It's confusing when you randomly stumble upon a car that randomly flashes one of its brake lights. That's not what all other cars do. - Plus when I look at a lot of these flashing brakelights, they are segmented, very likely because they're also built for the international market, where they would have taken one of these segments and made it amber. So converting these would be easy.
The UK has long required amber indicators - red brake/indicator lights are still permitted on cars registered before 1965, but otherwise, imported cars must be modified to have amber indicators.
@@stephenwalker6823 That's neat, well then. Not sure about Sweden.
That’s the entire point of the third brake light. You people jump on this bandwagon about light colors??😅 dang ppl.. it’s the same thing. If you can’t tell the difference you shouldn’t be allowed to drive
@@christianbryant5617 the point of the third (high level) brakes light is to allow a driver to see through the vehicle(s) in front, that others are braking and so react sooner - otherwise they'd not be necessary in countries with separate, amber indicators.
@@stephenwalker6823 there’s a few reasons for the third light, I’ll add on with better visibility for taller vehicles in traffic. But it was conceptualized to also act as another signal for breaking since the “bottom” portions used to not be as vibrant
i live in europe and i prefer the european license plates purely, because as those are regulated and have the same font all over europe, it allows for things like automatic license plate recognition, which is very convenient in paid parking lots etc as you can just drive in and out and the cameras automatically start and stop the parking, no fiddling with payment machines etc. The clear font also makes it easy to quickly read a plate (even in highway speeds from the traffic going the other way) from a familiar looking car to see if it's for example your friends car. The US style plates sure are graphically nicer, but in my opinion functionality comes before beauty in this case (also the US plates seem like they are impossible to read in the situations i mentioned)
I think EU plates are biring. At least they could use local coat of arms ir a flag
@@ligametis actually they do use coat of arms or flags in some countries of the EU. Austria has the coat of arms on it (or other symbols for special cases like the corps badge for fire fighter vehicles). Germany has the registration seal stickers, without them a license plate is invalid.
The font is not the same all over Europe. E.g. Germany and Austria have different fonts. The recognition system must be trained for every country separately. Germany even uses "Umlaute" e.g. "ü". The signs also differ in size. You can't mount a german plate in an austrian plate holder.
There are other differences. Belgium has red characters which is a problem with infrared lights for the cameras. Some will reflect, some not. Small flags are also used in Slovenia and Croatia. They are mostly for the region inside the country.
Recognition is used in parking lots, but only for control (except if you have a contract before). Most of the times you still need to register either through an app or a machine.
@@ligametisI prefer EU plates.
Regarding the registration plate, it is frequent to find static speed cameras in Europe that will record the speeds of both approaching and receding cars and as they use ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) for issuing speeding tickets, front number plates are mandatory. Interestingly, in the UK we use white reflective plates on the front and yellow reflective plates on the rear (similar to Dutch plates) as another safety feature (helps to spot parked cars at night if they not showing lights). In the UK, all plates have to be in a standard prescribed font and spacing in order to be recognised by ANPR systems (both static and those mounted in police cars) - failure to do so (as in the Dutch plate on the American car) results in a fine and (if you constantly fail to correct it) revocation of your registration.
But the front plate doesn't "blend in better" like he said - at least in some cars, take Alfa Romeo for example.
THe Dutch plate on the American car might have its text displayed over 2 lines instead so that each text's character is wider enough to be legal in the UK & various other countries
Meanwhile Japan & Taiwan/the ROC's (as well as S Korea's for commercial vehicles I think) license plates are of the same dimensions as the USA & they're mandatory on the vehicle's front. That might be a problem on the Ferrari 458 & 488 where the location that a front license plate would go is occupied by an additional Ferrari badge. If you used European license plates instead they're shorter & thus short enough to squeeze above/below that logo
Interestingly, look at where the front side indicator repeater is on the Porsche 911 (992) GT3 RS.
The EU regulations viewing angle is from behind and slightly to the side, and not directly opposite the indicator repeater.
one addition to the rear fog light from Germany: here they are only allowed to be used in visual range below 50meters because they are so intense that they are blinding... so we sometimes use them as "f*k you' lights, if we want to flip the guy behind us off
Disadvantage with rear foglights is that people in Europe don't know how to use them either. If a vehicle is driving just behind you, you have to turn off the foglight. People forget this (or don't know about it)
Australian and recently had a vacation to the U.S. yeah the red brake turn signal at times was confusing and half the time I just gave extra space between cars. (Don’t get me started on [all way stop signs] just install a roundabout)
Agreed. The stop signs and intersections would be better as roundabouts, they are so much safer.
I definitely prefer the European number plates cos I've grown up in England where we have the long short ones, orange on the back and white on the front. Whenever I see European cars like BMWs with NA plates on the back I always think it makes the car look worse and actually makes it look more like it's an actual American car because the plate changes the look so much. I think our European plates suit cars a lot better than NA ones, that's my personal opinion though.
In Australia they have a mix of. The US & EU style number plates, you can choose either to fit your car. I personally prefer the EU.
They also do alot of funky styles, and it pretty common to seen custom plates on a car.
I currently work at a UK car manufacturer. When I see the new cars waiting to go out of the plant. I can always tell the North American cars. Due to the licence plate holder on the car.
Some cars in EU (I used to have a Volkswagen) as parking indicator you can leave the turn signal on and when you turn off the car the front and back lights depending on which side the turn signal is set they remain on with a dim steady light so your car is visible in poor light road conditions
NHTSA actually allowed rear turn signal being amber, as alternative, in 2008 (not 100% sure).
Fun fact: In Jurassic Park (1'st movie) the kids, Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm are driving a jeep being chased by a tyrannosaurus, in one shot the camera views the rear mirror with the predator chasing them and the text on the mirror is readable (Objects in mirror are closer than they appear) which is quite funny.
(That's the whole point of that shot.)
In Iceland you can have a license plate with your own text.. As long as nobody else already has one like that. And it is - off course - at extra cost! Examples : Franz (the owners name) or Mafia! No joke!
We can have the text on ours too in Poland, but there are some restrictions, like it must fit the format (we have the 2 letters for voivodeship + 5 usually digits, you can edit the digits but the 2 letter part is not changeable) and you must pay extra
Same here in Norway as well. That is if that car crosses the border they legally do need to change into the number plates though.
One of my friends were able to get XXX on his plates 😊
I live in the Netherlands, but I have seen multiple cars from Belgium with custom plates like "XXX" I'm not kidding
Same here in the UK you can get custom text but they must match one of multiple different formats and have specific spacing between characters to be legal.
Australia too has personalised plates and every state has a different colour plate as well
Aside the look of the front of the EU spec i think that the unified white color of the whole headlight front is safer since IF there will be a orange light going on you will be able to see it a lot more than if it was behind a orange glass or plastic plate. The EU spec style of the front turning signal is more attention catching and therefore safer imo.
regarding nuymber plates - they are standardised across EU countries to allow them to be read by automatic number plate recognition cameras (ANPR)
It is an interesting Discussion.
In Germany everyone wants to have for example, for Golf 4 the US Version headlights Because of the orange lights, US Version bumper Because of the small licenseplate recess and so on
New Zealand black licence plates for the win, or just any personalised plate design option :) Fun note though, when travelling through France, my Lease/rental car had a Red Euro plate... it was to denominate a tourist lease vehicle... however apparently French military and special forces also have red plates, and my lease car was a black on black, tinted out sports car... everyone moved aside on the motorways etc haha! Got asked many times at various stops if i was french special forces :P
Fun fact...
In Portugal due to legislation older vehicles at some point had to install rear fog lights... whats curious is that some dont have reverse light and were only obligated to install the rear fog light.
For example, my grandpa had a beetle, one of the very older ones, and had to install the rear fog light cause on the vehicle anual inspection they said it could be apreended due to not being meet the safety standards.
My VW Jetta US-Spec lost one of it’s reverse lights to make room for the rear fog light
Simply because a reverse light is a comfort item while a fog light is a safety item.
@@michelbeauloye4269A reverse light is not for comfort, it is a safety feature, so others can see that the car will be driving backwards when it moves. E.g. important if you are a pedestrian or cyclist and have to be in close distance to a car in parking or city street.
@@Foersom_ Whilst i agree with you in many countries (norway included, where im from) reverse lights are not mandatory.
What I like about German plates is that the first letters show what town/city the vehicle is registered in.
Russian plates also have the first numbers showing the region it's from.
Same for the current UK ones, two letters for registration area then two numbers for the year of registration, the last 3 letters are random..
Chinese plates always have one character on there which stands for the city or province where the car is from. For example for beijing 北京 the jing 京 is on license plates. Btw bei means north and jing capital. The city of nanjing 南京 is therefore literally translated the southern capital and Japans capital, Tokyo, is literally called the eastern capital Dongjing 东京
As a child in Germany I always loved guessing which city or area the car came from. Or to look out for funny letter combinations
That's a bad idea. Cars are destroyed because of that in Corse (France) because they hate people from other parts of france coming for holidays. Same thing happens in Italy with people from the north or in Belgium with people from wallonia going to Flanders
In the UK only the rear lights have a reflector. None on the front. Because of that you have to park in the direction of traffic on a 40mph+ road so your rear reflectors are visible to cars on the side where you parked
As with our numberplates here in the UK is one of the prerequisity of the driving test is that your able to read it from 20meters or 65feet away, and also the numberplates can be read by ANPR(automatic numberplate recognition) cameras, either static cameras dotted aound the city or mounted on police cars.
UK plates must also state who supplied the number plate and be marked with BS AU145 if not it's illegal.
ANPR systems are illegal in germany for example because of privacy concerns.
@@sgxbot Only when the data is collected without an explicit purpose. (Automated numberplate recognition is widely used in speeding cameras in Germany).
tbf i think the 20 meter requirement is more for a quick test of your vision eligibility rather than a design specification for the plate...
@Willy Hu its both, the numbers/letters must be legible to read from a distance, no fancy fonts allowed and must be a certain size. Police officers must be able to read the plates, and for the anpr cameras to track the car.
One really important feature of the EU license plates being standardized and easy to read is that automated license plate detector cameras are being implemented in parking garages and some factory gates even. Meaning you don't even have to open your window to handle a ticket to enter/exit a gated area since the camera detects your license plate and therefore your parking app profile etc.
Yeah, many supermarket car parks also use them to prevent all-day parking, but it has caused a few issues - one of my colleagues went to a certain 'German' supermarket on the way to work, only there about 15 mins - but he went back on the way home, weeks later he got a ticket as the camera didn't pick him up in the morning when he left, so the system thought he'd been there more than 6 hours..!
Same as in the UK in many carparks and of course the automatic number plate recognition systems (ANPR) that the police use.
We have Australian style plates NOT Euro, but the gates open for us - it makes NO difference.
there's also an advantage I haven't seen anyone mention so far... With the standardization you can effectively get a numberplate in any country of the free trade zone to be legal on your car. This especially comes in handy when you buy a car in another country, are using a caravan or trailer, etc
EU plates are also reflective which makes the cars SO much more visible
I love the European spec number plate (Registration Plate)
There is no "european" license plate. Each european country has its own form of played
It also depends on the initial car design. Some European cars look stupid when sold in the US (the extra bumper you mentioned - old Mercedes, like w115, w123, w116 were required to be equipped with those comic bumpers as the law required no car impact up to the 5mph speed, or change lighting to integrated halogen units, whereas in Europe you just swap the bulb available on each gas station and your're good to go). But as of what I see, Americans like EU spec, EU citizens like US spec as those small differences are not what they're used to see on daily basis. American front turn indicators for aforementioned W124 with side markers are kinda rarity around here and good condition ones can cost more, than the whole front lightning. Regarding license plates, there used to be black ones with white letters, they were looking cool on black cars especially. Ahh also, we don't have this stupid key in ignition lock buzzer 😊 on the other side, most of older cars were poorly equipped compared to the same models sold in the US (manual crank windows, no AC or a manual one at most - this has changed recently though possibly due to lower costs of maintaining one production line, so win-win situation 😊
the reason for the one side fog light is so that you can see on what side you can pass a car, also it is one to not confuse it with brake lights
Australian number plates are available in multiple sizes and designs to suit all vehicles and personal choices.
American vehicles coming to Australia require many changes to comply
pretty sure that u can get number plates for american cars in europe too .. i mean different size ...
@@klaabu99 Yeah there are shorten ones for exactly these cases
the uk plates are also big reflectors the background reflects light to help make the cars more visible without lights on
Which is why while our front plates are white our rear plates are yellow Whearas most of Europe has white both ends (and NL yellow both ends)
It's actually forbidden to have any white lights or reflectors on the rear of the car (other than when it's in reverse)
And forbidden to have red lights or reflectors to the front.
It's one of the reasons why emergency vehicles use either all blue or blue and white lights to the front, and all blue or blue and red to the rear
EU plates in general have a reflecting background
2:48 "Its also inline with a lot of other countries out side of EU"
Its really the other way around. A lot of other countries have simply coped large part of the EU spec because its simply cheap to do so.
11:03 that is as far as i know not a regulation feature, but sort of a safety feature that most company just have adopted
And EU safety requirements are almost world standard. Not only for cars, food, toys, electric equipment, but almost anything. Countries working on the safety of their citizens copy EU standards because they are good and in the interest of the consumer.
@@dutchman7623 Well effectively... kind of.. it does depends on what it is.
The small cell cadmium ban really didn´t spreed over the world that fast. It was really just phased out doe to better cells being available.
The lose magnet ban have spreed to a large part of the world, but there is still plenty of parts where its not a thing.
but for the most part... yes, you are right. For cars sold, there is really just made for North american market, for European market or ... in some cases for Japanese market.
The rest of the world pretty much choise of the want to follow EU or north american market... or both. Its really just Japan that stands out.
(while, if i understand it corectly, some south american market allow japanese, north american as well as EU type standards)
@@dutchman7623 That's why neoloberals and tories hate the EU
@@matsv201 Which countries outside USA or Canada import US regulated cars as their main type? I can't think of any so I am asking if you can.
@@papalaz4444244 as far as I know there are caribian island states that also use us spec exclusively.
The airbag thing is absolutly true for older cars not for modern ones though. My american import 1991 miata has a single airbag and an extra suport beam while an EU-spec wouldn't have those. Because I have an USA import I am allowed to have a square USA style plate at the back and don't need to add a fog light.
in America, the turn signals are red, because the industry saves aditional lights for the brake-light. For BL you need more surface-lit-area then the normal Rear-Lights. Thats why the turn-indicator lamps flash together with the brake-lights
Fun fact: Italy and Switserland allow very small front plates. So on Italian cars you can often see that they are not designed for the standard Euro front plates. This goes a long way back: for example, cars like the Ferrari 308 series, and many others, are totally ruined by having to fit large front plates.
Oh, I at times see the off-centre license plate here (at the front). It looks very weird 😂
Eeer, nope, italian here. Plates have standard size regardless of kind of car. Either a fancy Lambo or Farrari or a Fiat Panda.
@@MLWJ1993 That's common on Alfa Romeo cars because of their Scudetto (front grill design)
Finland also have smaller plates, some with orange ring or something like that rather than rest of Europe
@@MLWJ1993I actually like that